Perspectives
by x.lithium
Summary: Kurt and Blaine's relationship, in the eyes of Burt, Santana, and Rachel.


**Burt Hummel: **

Burt Hummel is many things, but a romantic is not one of them.

Before Carole, love had been only memories of the sickly sweet smell of hospitals and Kurt's mom, pale and untouchable on the scratchy bedsheets.

But Kurt grows up watching Moulin Rouge and Casablanca and wants to fall in love with absolutely everything—from the perfect fall outfit to the grande non-fat mocha brewed just right.

So when Blaine enters the picture, it doesn't at all surprise Burt that Kurt falls heart over head over heels in love with the dapper private school boy with the fluffy hair and the foolish honey eyes.

Burt just digs in his heels and braces himself for when, inevitably, he'll think 'I knew it would end like this', and hopes that Kurt doesn't get his heart broken too badly. Because Burt remembers high school, remembers when that very first kiss, gentle and soft and then rough and passionate and oh god, _teeth_, had tasted a little bit like eternity.

But Blaine and Kurt are both such big personalities, their hearts filled to the brim with music and bright lights and cities that aren't Lima, Ohio, and what are the chances that they'll do anything except fall deep and hard and fast and then eventually, break each other's hearts.

Burt stays by Kurt's side through it all. He reassures Kurt that Blaine will love the way he looks, no matter what he wears, when Kurt is very nearly hyperventilating as he tears through his closet trying to put together an outfit for his date.

Burt resolutely grips the TV remote and doesn't peek through the curtains when he hears Blaine's car pull up on the drive, not even when the seconds stretch into minutes and Kurt still doesn't come in. When he does, finally, Kurt is hazy-eyed and puffy-lipped and ruffled, and his shirt isn't even tucked into his pants. Burt just smiles gruffly, and nods when Kurt says goodnight before very nearly waltzing down the stairs to his room.

Burt is there through all the dreamy sighs, all the pining for Blaine (even though they have barely been apart for twenty minutes), all the doe-eyed hopeful glances and giddy giggles and blushes directed at Kurt's phone.

Burt is there when Blaine drops Kurt off , lips lingering a little too familiarly, hips pressed together a little too intimately. Kurt doesn't say anything about it—but he doesn't need to. No matter what, Burt loved Kurt first, knows Kurt inside out and through and through. It scares him to think just how quickly Kurt's last few years has flown by him, feels inexplicably like he's being left behind, but Burt is glad that Kurt got to give something as special as his first time to a boy as sweet and considerate and special as Blaine, someone who would make sure that Kurt knew he _mattered_.

Burt is there through it all. He watches them fall apart and change and grow and put each other back together. No matter what, though, Blaine holds Kurt's heart in his hands as if it's made of glass, delicate and loving and gentle.

And Burt is there, thinking maybemaybe_maybe _and ignoring the little whisper in his mind saying something that sounds a lot like _forever_.

But then Blaine and Kurt break each other's hearts, and they are both inconsolable and so sorry and so, so broken.

Kurt is a whole city away, but Burt feels every bit of Kurt's regret and pain through the phone. Kurt talks and cries for hours and hours, and Burt is there for it all.

It isn't until Blaine shows up at the shop and apologizes—all regret and eyes that read _stupid stupid how could I do something like that to Kurt stupid_—that Burt realizes he doesn't want them to lose something so infinite and immense just because they both got too tired, stretching this thing across the miles and miles separating them, just for a moment too long to make one unforgiveable mistake.

"You gonna give up on my boy?" asks Burt, because Blaine may be small and young and a little stupid, but if there's one thing he believes in, it's Kurt and courage. "Are you done with him?"

And then Blaine is all sweet, startled eyes, and Burt doesn't want to give up, because he knows just as well as Blaine that they are KurtandBlaine and BlaineandKurt and Blurt and Klaine and he doesn't even know a Blaine after Kurt, or a Kurt without Blaine.

Burt doesn't know where Blaine's dreams end and Kurt's begins, anymore, they'd written each other into their lives and all their plans so finely.

"Don't you dare give up on Kurt, son. Don't walk away from something that would be good forever."

Burt watches as Blaine visibly steels himself. Burt is there when they rip each other's hearts out.

He's no romantic, but he'll be there as they claw and fight their way kicking and screaming back to one other, and maybe that could convince him.

"Kurt's the best thing that I can imagine, Mr Hummel. I'll never say goodbye to him."

**Santana Lopez: **

If there's one thing Santana knows, it's that nothing good ever comes from the truth.

The truth is that Britanny's world doesn't crash and stop and burn when Santana leaves it. In fact, it barely leaves a mark. The truth is that she'd meant it, looking into crystalline eyes and pinkies tangled for maybe the last time, meant it with every single ounce of her being: "I will always love you the most, Brit."

The truth is that Santana used to wear around the name 'Lopez' like a big shiny badge, and now it's just a reminder of the sting and burn, because she can handle all the haters in the world, but not he way her family won't even look at her anymore.

The truth is that in an unfamiliar city, surrounded by pretty faces and big voices and hundreds of Rachel Berrys and Kurt Hummels, Santana doesn't feel nearly good enough or talented enough or pretty enough.

So Santana tells herself that she does think she's good enough, convinces herself that her hand doesn't shake when she writes her last name, lies to herself that blonde hair and blue eyes and a gentle laugh don't still haunt her every day.

Everyone is allowed their self-pretenses, she's just better at lying to herself than most.

When the curly-haired Hobbit Anderson barrels into the loft, out of breath and sweaty enough that his hair is breaking free of its gel helmet, and a little bit crazy-eyed, Santana pretends that she doesn't wish someone would fight for _her _like that.

But she isn't lying when she thinks that they're doomed, have been from the start. It doesn't how much they love or loved each other, the reality is that Adam is here, right beside Kurt on the couch, solid and real and from New York, and no Blaine Anderson or Kurt Hummel can defy gravity or the odds or whatever, no matter how much they want it.

But Blaine doesn't even seem to register Santana or Adam, just has eyes for Kurt. (And god, it's like high school all over again—there could be an entire gymnasium of people and Blaine's eyes would still find Kurt's, first and always.)

"Kurt, _Kurt_. Please, please don't say goodbye to me. You still love me, don't you?"

And there is no way, Santana thinks, _no way_. Because everyone knows that Kurt still loves Blaine and always will, but the truth is painful and real and scathing because Adam is _better for Kurt_ and Kurt's still in love with Blaine. So Santana knows that Kurt will lie lie lie, they're all liars if it's the only way to make everything seem okay.

But then: "_Always_."

Adam is right there and so is Kurt and Blaine, choosing the truth even though it's hard and it hurts and Santana doesn't understand it at all.

A week later, Blaine is back in Ohio and Kurt is still here and Santana still doesn't understand.

But then Blaine face lights up on Kurt's skype, all pixel-y and fuzzily and really, you can barely even see his face. Blaine's sad and smiling, too, and Santana thinks that she maybe understands a little when Kurt says the truth.

"I miss you so much I can barely breathe, Blaine. But it's _so good _to see you."

**Rachel Berry: **

Rachel Berry doesn't like being surprised.

Rachel likes plans. Plans are the path to the future. They're reliable and predictable, and even when they fail, well, she's got backup plans B and C and D, too.

Plans don't change their minds or give up or go away. They don't fall in love with other people or outshine her or grow up. They don't ever stop believing in her, or believe in her so goddamn much that they send her away.

Rachel likes her plans—plans and schedules and a lack of surprises.

But Blaine, it is literally Blaine's life ambition to surprise the hell out of Kurt as often as possible.

There are surprises that don't disrupt Rachel's plans, like the packages that Blaine mails them. He sends Kurt cookies and blankets and bowties and letters. He sends Kurt a bottle of Blaine's cologne, because Kurt is always saying that he loves it. (Ridiculously, Kurt never ever wears it out, but instead Rachel catches him spraying it into his blankets before he settles in to sleep for the night.)

Rachel doesn't mind these surprises, even admits to enjoying them quite a bit, because Blaine is considerate and kind of a sweetheart, and always makes sure to send little gifts to Santana and Rachel, too.

He sends Santana a comic book that is crude and vulgar, which Santana flips through, cackling for days. And though Santana would probably deny it to within an inch of her life, Rachel sees that Santana's cut out the page of the book where Blaine had written: _I know you've been having a hard time, but even from my view two feet from the ground I can see how talented and beautiful you are. I believe in you Santana! Your #1 fan, Blaine :) x _and pinned it up on her vanity mirror.

For Rachel, Blaine had sent a huge, fantastic bouquet of flowers. Rachel counts at least five different types of flowers in seven different colours, and preens at the poem about her eyes scrawled on her card. Rachel hadn't even thought that Blaine had been paying attention when she'd been ranting and crying about her breakup with her latest boyfriend, Dylan, complaining that he hadn't even ever bought her flowers. Rachel doesn't mind Blaine's surprise deliveries, they're cheesy and sappy, but also non-disruptive and ridiculously sweet.

(Blaine sends her the bouquet, but the beautiful, stunning red rose is delivered to Kurt Hummel.)

Rachel also generally doesn't mind Blaine's surprise visits to New York. It might mean that Kurt will bail on their brunch plans, but Blaine smells like home and he hugs the way Rachel loves, close and tight and clingy.

And although Rachel and Santana roll their eyes and complain, they live in _New York_, so finding a place to kill time while Blaine and Kurt have sex and cuddle in the loft isn't too hard.

When Blaine moves to New York, the four of them move out of the loft and into a bigger apartment. An apartment with walls and rooms, rooms that are big and nice and wonderfully soundproof.

With Blaine moving in, the amount of surprises in Rachel's life drastically increases.

Instead of rehearsing for three hours like she'd planned, Rachel is dragged into the lounge area to join her roommates in epic games of Super Smash Bro Brawl.

Another morning, Rachel opens the door to Kurt and Blaine's room to grab the hair curler she'd left there, because it is _nine thirty _and both of them are supposed to be in class, _according to plan_.

Instead, Rachel walks in on a very naked Blaine on top of a very naked Kurt, who is moaning and whining very nakedly. And Rachel sort of wants to bleach her brain. (Because seriously, Blaine is hot and Kurt is hot and they are _hot _together, but they have also been her friends since _forever _and there are just some things that are better left unseen.)

Rachel even walks into the apartment and is mauled by a very excited puppy one day. Blaine argues that the poor puppy had been abandoned outside and he couldn't very well just leave it to starve, could he?! And this is very Not According to Plan, but Blaine's eyes and Kurt's pout are just _unfair_.

Even after Blaine and Kurt move out, they still manage to disrupt all of Rachel's plans with their surprises.

They kidnap her the night before her big audition to a little café, and they talk and reminisce and laugh far too late into the night. Her eye bags the next day are _the worst_ and she blames it all on them. (She gets the part, but eyes them scathingly anyway.)

She swears to herself not to be overly dramatic and teary on the night of her opening, but Kurt and Blaine surprise her by sitting front row and center, even though she knows both their weeks are absolutely packed. At the end, they cheer so loud the crowd joins in and she gets an encore. She bawls like a baby afterward.

They leave her cute notes all over her apartment and gives her number to that guy at the bar who is cute and incredibly sweet, but not her usual type.

But the biggest surprise of all comes one night when she joins them at their apartment for dinner. Kurt is a little late getting home, and Blaine is bustling around the kitchen, insisting that Rachel relax into the lounge. By nature, Rachel is a fiddler, so she plays with everything on the coffee table as she watches TV.

Kurt and Blaine have a jar filled with little origami frogs, and Rachel is in the process of giving them all names and detailed backstories when something glittery and bright falls out from one of the paper creatures and skitters onto the hardwood floor.

Rachel is pretty sure she shrieks when she picks up the beautifully cut, diamond ring, because something clatters alarmingly in the kitchen and then Blaine is running out towards her.

"_Blaine. Anderson._ You're going to propose to Kurt! Ohmygod, ohmygod!"

It isn't a question, Kurt has made it clear since high school that Blaine is going to be the one getting down on one knee.

Blaine scratches his head sheepishly, grinning as Rachel squeals wide-eyed and approvingly over the ring. "I was going to tell you soon, Rach. I just asked Burt for Kurt's hand in marriage in afternoon, he said—"

"Well _of course_ he said _yes_, Blaine, everyone knows you and Kurt are going to get married! Oh I can't wait to tell Santana!"

"Yes, well, don't let Kurt—"

"_Obviously_ I'm not going to tell him. Oh you have to let me help you plan it!"

Rachel likes plans. They are organized and detailed and not scary, because in what world would Kurt ever say no to Blaine proposing. Rachel fully intends to help Blaine plan the biggest, most fabulous surprise of Kurt's life.

And then Kurt and Blaine's wedding, too. Duh, Rachel is the queen of planning.


End file.
